Indian mills contract to export 2.2 million tonnes sugar: trade body

A labourer carries a sack of sugar to load it onto a supply truck at a market area in Kolkata, January 25, 2019. REUTRS/Rupak De Chowdhuri/Files

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Indian sugar mills have contracted to export 2.2 million tonnes of sugar since the current marketing season began on October 1, a leading trade body said on Thursday.

Mills have already shipped out a little over a million tonnes of the sweetener, Praful Vithalani, president of the All India Sugar Trade Association, said.

“So far India has exported almost an equal amount of raw and white sugar for which the top three destinations are Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Somalia,” Vithalani said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet late last year approved incentives to encourage cash-strapped mills to export at least 5 million tonnes of sugar in the 2018/19 season to help prop up prices by trimming bulging stocks.